Ultimate Guide to Call Center Metrics that Matter Most

Anyone working in a call center knows how critical metrics are to a successful organization. However, many companies don’t know how to determine which metrics they need to focus on.

Evolve IP has created this guide to help call center professionals identify where to focus to maximize the value of their data.

The place to start is to think about what your callers really want from your call center, and the best way to start is by looking at what they don’t want from you.

Start with the Customer

The place to start is to think about what your callers really want from your call center, and the best way to start is by looking at what they don’t want from you.

Goals of the Call Center

There are many metric goals for a call center. Some of these metrics are captured in the phone system, others require additional systems or processes to collect data, and others require that you marry up the data from multiple systems to give you a holistic picture.

Business Drivers – Business drivers typically involve the core functions of the organization or call center and revolve around business transactions. They often are combined with ACD information. Common drivers include cost per call, revenue per call, average call value, sales conversion rate, cross-sell, etc. Evolve IP’s customers often marry up phone/ACD data with the data from their CRM (or business applications) to produce these insightful business metrics.

Quality Management – Quality Management typically involves a conscious and consistent effort to review each agent’s customer interactions, grade the agents, provide coaching/feedback, and operate continuously to improve agent performance. This evaluation includes customer service skills, product knowledge, system expertise/usage, and various efficiency and effectiveness measures to create an overall Call Quality score.

Customer & Employee Satisfaction – The ultimate measurement regards the degree of loyalty your customers have for your organization. Would they recommend your services to their connections? This data is often captured via surveys, which can be post-call surveys or those that take other forms such as email or web-based surveys.Of course, a happy employee is critical to your organization. Employee satisfaction is also is directly related to customer satisfaction. If your employees are happy, they will provide friendlier, more helpful service to your customers. Moreover, your employee turnover will decrease, agent tenure increase, and hiring/training costs decrease.

Workforce Management (WFM) – For customers that have deployed a WFM solution, metrics include forecast vs. actual volume, scheduled staff vs. actual, and agent adherence to schedule. Evolve IP has customers using various WFM tools like IEX and Monet for forecasting and real-time adherence that are fed historical and real-time data by the ACD.

Phone System / ACD – Phone System/ACD – Strictly from the call center ACD, there are just a few key metrics that you should use to judge your call center’s performance, mostly focused on how quickly you are answering calls:

Average Speed of Answer (ASA)

The equation for this metric is the total caller delay divided by the total number of ACD calls. This serves as a substitute for Service Level. Because it is an average, it is very misleading – many callers are answered before the ASA, and many wait far longer. For example in the red/blue bar graph below, blue bars represent the ASA while the red bars represent individual caller’s wait times. decrease.

If your call center is consistently hitting an 80/20 Service Level, your ASA will likely be about 15-17 seconds. However, that’s because many callers are answered right away without waiting. In reality, about 30 percent of those calls queued and there are quite a few callers that waited a few minutes to get answered. The 15 or 17 second average really doesn’t represent as true of a picture of the customer experience. ASA should be considered a fallback position from Service Level since it is much less indicative of the true customer experience.

Service Level

This is calculated by taking the number of calls you answered within your goal (say 20 or 30 seconds) and dividing it by the number of calls received. This is indicative of the percent of callers that were answered within your organizational target goal. A common goal is to answer 80 percent of the calls within 20 seconds. We recommend that you look at this by interval not as an average across all the intervals in a day. In other words, what percent of intervals did you hit your SL goal? That way, you ensure that the customer experience is consistent throughout the day. In many call centers, the first hour or two of the day (or last hour or two) will produce the worst results since they typically have the minimal amount of staff during those periods. During the middle of the day, when all the shifts are in the office, the results are phenomenal – making the overall results for the day look great. If you were one of those end of the day callers and you waited on hold for 10 minutes, would you consider that a great experience? That’s why you should look at the SL across all intervals of the day since a daily result can be misleading.

Answer rate and abandon rate

The abandon rate is the inverse of the answer rate. These metrics are secondary to Service Level & ASA, and more a byproduct of the staffing lined up to handle incoming call volume. This metric often represents caller behavior more than call center performance and you have far less control of this stat. Evolve IP likes to look at this metric but not judge by it; it’s not black/white like ASA or Service Level. You can’t build staffing models to achieve an answer or abandon rate.

Part 2: Metrics for Performance Management

There are many agent metrics indicative of agent behavior that you can use to coach/mentor your staff to improve their performance. Some of these include: Average handle time, number of transferred calls, unavailability to answer inbound ACD calls, sign in / sign out time, number of outbound calls, and number of callers put on hold.

In reality, there are only a few key metrics that you should use to truly judge your agents’ performance. The first two impact the caller expectations, while the last one ensures the agent is performing the right activities at the right time:

Call Quality: This typically comes from quality monitoring performed by supervisors or a separate QA team. If the agent is wowing your customer and excelling at your quality monitoring objectives like their customer service skills, product knowledge, and system expertise, haven’t they achieved nirvana? They are pros…they build rapport with the customer…they give them accurate information…they log everything in the system correctly….they move efficiently through the call… these are the things that the agent can control. Ultimately the agent’s handling of the call is one of the key factors in caller satisfaction. You should focus heavily on call quality and have on-going reviews of agent performance. You may spend more energy on your newer employees than your seasoned ones since the more tenured agents are more likely to behave in the manner you expect. The goal of a quality initiative is to raise the performance of all agents. Imagine if you could get the middle of the pack agents in your call center to perform like the top 10 percent of your agents. THAT would be a game changer and a crowning achievement for you.

First Call Resolution: This is calculated based upon the number of calls resolved upon initial contact divided by the total number of calls. Since labor is the largest cost in any call center and every caller wants their question resolved right away, completing more and more calls as a “one and done” is key to cost and customer satisfaction. Evolve IP’s customers typically capture this information from either their CRM system or through the use of disposition codes tracked in the phone system. This is a critical component to customer satisfaction.

Adherence to Schedule: This metric comes from the marriage of workforce management (WFM) and the call center information to answer the question “Are my agents doing the right things at the right time?” This information comes from the WFM system after it’s fed real-time agent state information and compares that to the agent’s schedule. Are they making an outbound call when they are supposed to be available? Did they come back from lunch late? Are they available when their shift begins or are they still grabbing a cup of coffee in the break room? If agents are following their schedule, they are doing what you asked. So, now the responsibility falls back on you to make sure that you are generating accurate forecasts and schedules that align the right number of agents to meet your Service Level goals.

Be Careful What You Ask For

There are many metric goals for a call center. Some of these metrics are captured in the phone system, others require additional systems or processes to collect data, and others require that you marry up the data from multiple systems to give you a holistic picture.

Believe it or not, all agents may not always have the customer’s best interests at heart. They may actually be more focused on their own success, their own wallet, and the metrics you are using to motivate them. When that individual success is linked to the agent’s metrics you need to be careful, and you need to understand the data and make sure you have the right checks and balances.

Metrics are not necessarily the silver bullet answer that solves all the call center’s challenges. In fact, managing exclusively by those metrics may actually have an unintended and negative impact on your customer experience. This means that you need to understand the cause and effect and interdependencies between the various metrics.

For instance, if you manage your agents to an “average handle time (AHT)” KPI, they will hit that goal – but, you may not like the reason why. As an agent’s day unfolds and their AHT is too high, how will they get it back on track? They are going to rush through customers; they are going to take shortcuts with some callers so that their overall AHT falls back in line with expectations. We’ve seen agents feign a bad phone connection and terminate the call, or put the customer on hold and then terminate the call blaming technology. Now the customer must call back and start all over again. That’s a horrific customer experience!

Similarly, if you manage to “calls per hour” you’ll see some agents taking similar actions to increase their calls per hour: “Whoops dropped that call.” “Oops that transfer failed.” “Oops must be a bad connection.”

Instead of judging an agent by AHT, calls per hour, or some other efficiency measure, consider adding some additional items to score your agents during your quality monitoring activities. Focus on their ability to control the call: did the agent take all steps possible to complete that call in an efficient manner? Coach them on how they could have better handled that call. Not only will the agent get the proper coaching & training that will achieve the same results, it will ultimately will drive down AHT but in a healthy way.

So, you might be wondering about setting higher goals, say moving from an 80/20 Service Level goal to a 90/20 Service Level goal? You’d answer more calls quickly and make more customers happy right? Seems like a great idea!

Well, there is too much of a good thing too. Unfortunately there are some opposing forces at play here.

To achieve a higher Service Level goal, you’ll need more people on the phones. Achieving 90 percent of anything is tougher than achieving 80 percent. As we all know, that last 10-20 percent of results requires much more effort than first 80 percent. This is the law of diminishing returns that applies everywhere in our lives. To increase your Service Level goals, you’ll need to add more staff to the phones, plain and simple. You’ll need to answer more calls more quickly, and staffing is the way to achieve that.

Occupancy

Let’s briefly talk about occupancy, which is defined as “the percentage of time an agent is actually involved in call handling versus sitting in the idle state waiting for a call.” This is a function of call volume, staffing, and service goals. This can be interpreted as “productive inbound time on the phone.” So the more time agents spend on the phone, the higher their occupancy. However, as you increase your Service Level goals, your overall agent occupancy goes down. It’s an inverse relationship. As more agents are added to the same call volume, their occupancy decreases, because agents must spend more time sitting available for the next call in order to answer a higher percentage of the calls.

Putting this all together, your call center’s performance goes up because you’ve added more agents and are achieving higher Service Level goals, your callers are happy, but your agent occupancy goes down and your overall cost goes up and agents spend less time on the phone.

That’s the “opposite force” in this scenario, and you get to explain to your boss at your next budget review why more agents spending less time on the phone is a good thing.

A Step Further

Let’s take that discussion a step further, considering employee satisfaction and focus on the impact of occupancy on your call center agents. As agents spend a higher portion of their day on the phone, they become increasingly weary at the end of the day. The frenetic pace of answering dozens of a calls in a day eventually gets to even the highest motivated agents. Now your CFO might say “I’m paying them 100 percent of their salary and I expect to see them on the phones 100 percent of the day.” We all know that’s not practical nor feasible in a call center.

As agent occupancy goes up, employee motivation and morale goes down – and we all know a happy employee means a happy customer right. So, an unhappy employee means what kind of customer? Not the kind you want.

An agent can’t control occupancy. All he can do is what you ask of him – that is being available for inbound calls at the times you expect him to be available. Occupancy is actually a byproduct of a few factors:

Your incoming call volume

The Service Level goals you have for your call center

The number of agents you have on the phones to answer that volume

So, occupancy is actually in your control, not the agents. So you need to find the right staffing and Service Level goals that keep your agents engaged and productive, but don’t lead to burn out and dissatisfaction.

Conclusion

Now that you have learned about the metrics that matter most to the call center, you might be interested in seeking a call center solution that enables you to accurately and easily track these metrics. Call 844-EVOLVEIP to learn more about Evolve IP’s Cloud Call Center solution.

Recommended For You

The Evolve IP Compliance CloudTM

Compliance is a way to do business … not an afterthought when clients need it.

At Evolve IP we have a dedicated compliance and security practice and work with two of the world’s top 3rd-party compliance auditors, Grant Thornton and Ernst & Young, to enable customers to extend their compliance to our fully audited cloud. This focus allows us to deliver the documentation and assurances that other’s simply cannot including HIPAA / HITRUST, PCI-DSS (all 12 sections), SOC 2/3 and more. The Compliance CloudTM includes true client isolation, encryption in transit and at rest, private VLANs, firewalls and dozens of other security measures.

What Our Clients Say

“High-level technology, better compliance, cybersecurity, and communication capabilities are expected of all providers of financial services, regardless of size. With the rate of change and costs involved, it is difficult for any size credit union to keep pace. So when we were looking for a cloud technology partner, we emphasized the need to provide to our members with technology solutions that help them compete with larger banks and financial institutions, at a cost they can afford. Evolve IP offers all that, plus broad financial services industry experience and a pedigree of providing first-rate service to support growth and continually enhance the entire member experience.”

David Frankil, Chairman of the NJCUL Services Corporation and President/CEO of the New Jersey Credit Union League

"The people that Evolve IP are more personable; you don't feel like there's necessarily a script when you're talking with them, they’re easy to understand, quick to get a hold of, and they follow through on what they say they're going to do."

"I was a bit of skeptical because I've been told that by sales guys before...but you've all came through on every one of their promises and not only that, but even throughout our subsequent years of working with us as partners, you’ve stepped up to the plate whenever we needed something and provided a helping hand"

"…we were assigned a project manager for our implementation they weren't just force-feeding one process down. they listened, they work with us, they adjusted schedules and they held our hand every step of the way…"

HITRUST

Evolve IP is proud to have achieved the honor of being HITRUST CSF certified! Certification to the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) affirms that all of Evolve IP’s cloud computing and cloud communications services adhere to the strictest security standards for electronic protected health information (PHI). The HITRUST security standard was developed by and for the healthcare industry as a means of going above and beyond the compliance requirements of HIPAA.

The HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) was developed to address the multitude of security, privacy and regulatory challenges facing healthcare organizations. The HITRUST CSF was developed by healthcare and IT professionals to provide an efficient and prescriptive framework for managing the security requirements inherent in HIPAA. HITRUST CSF rationalizes healthcare-relevant regulations and standards into a single overarching security framework. An important part of the “What is HITRUST” answer is understanding that the CSF is risk-based and compliance-based so that organizations can tailor the security control baselines and vendor management programs that they follow based on their specific organization type, size, systems, and regulatory requirements.

HIPPA

The Privacy regulations of the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) require health care providers, organizations, and their business associates, develop and follow procedures that ensure the confidentiality and security of protected health information (PHI) when it is transferred, received, handled, or shared. This applies to all forms of PHI — paper, oral, and electronic, etc. Those who fail to adhere to HIPAA can suffer from huge fines climbing into the millions of dollars for major violations.

The Compliance Cloud™ fully enables covered entities and their business associates subject to HIPAA regulations to leverage a secure environment to process, maintain, and store protected health Information (PHI) featuring among other controls.

SSAW 16 Service Organization Control II (SOC 2)

Evolve IP has received an SSAE 16 SOC 2 Type II report on our internal controls relating to how we assess and address the potential risks associated with the security, availability, and confidentiality of not only the cloud-based services that we provide, but also our physical and logical infrastructure. Evolve IP utilizes the Certified Public Accounting firm of Grant Thornton to perform its annual audit and attestation in accordance with the Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 and the associated Trust Services Principles, as published by the AICPA, to evaluate the effectiveness of Evolve IP’s service organizations controls.

Forbes

While Forbes regularly features coverage and recognition about Evolve IP, they've most recently recognized Evolve IP as being the "Best Cloud Computing Companies And CEOs To Work For In 2017". They've ranked Evolve IP in the Top 3 just behind Google and Microsoft in the Cloud Infrastructure classification. (Feb 2017). Forbes also recently recognizes Evolve IP for bringing Singer Equipment Corporation, a mainstream business based in PA, into the cloud by means of unified communication. (Sept 2017). Last year, Forbes recognized Evolve IP's survey of 1,080 executives citing that the number one reason to go to the cloud is the same reason that it is avoided. (Mar 2016).

Unified Communications Product of the Year

TMC and Internet Telephony Magazine have named Evolve IP’s unified communications platform as a 2017 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award winner. This marks the 6th time Evolve IP has been honored with this prestigious award and follows a series of product innovations that have allowed the company to rapidly expand its international coverage.

Evolve IP’s business collaboration tools and IP phone system dramatically improve employee productivity in the office and on the road with a Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform that fully integrates voice, video, instant messaging & presence (IM&P), desktop sharing, audio/web conferencing and more. The company also provides a sophisticated Web-based management portal, OSSmosis®, that allows administrators to easily configure system functions and quickly modify users without the need to reach out to a third party for changes.

Inc.

Inc. magazine has recognized Evolve IP in the 34th annual Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive listing of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list will be unveiled in the September issue of Inc.

The story of this year's Inc. 5000 is the story of great leadership. In an incredibly competitive business landscape, it takes something extraordinary to take your company to the top," says Inc. President and Editor-In-Chief Eric Schurenberg. "You have to remember that the average company on the Inc. 5000 grew nearly six-fold since 2012. Business owners don't achieve that kind of success by accident.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)

Evolve IP has achieved Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) compliance covering all 12 sections of the PCI DSS. The PCI data security standard is a comprehensive set of standards that require merchants and service providers that store, process, or transmit customer payment card data to adhere to strict information security controls and processes. It was created by the founding brands of the PCI Security Standards Council, which includes American Express, Discover Financial, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa Inc.

CSA STAR

Evolve IP is also a registered and participating member of the CSA Security, Trust & Assurance Registry (STAR). The CSA was formed to encourage transparency of security practices within cloud providers. It is a free, publicly accessible registry that documents the security controls provided by various cloud computing offerings, thereby helping users assess the security of cloud providers they currently use or are considering contracting with. CSA STAR is open to all cloud providers, and allows them to submit assessment reports that document compliance to CSA published best practices. The searchable registry will allow potential cloud customers to review the security practices of providers, accelerating their due diligence and leading to higher quality procurement experiences. CSA STAR represents a major leap forward in industry transparency, encouraging providers to make security capabilities a market differentiator.

Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500TM

Evolve IP has been ranked for the second consecutive year on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America – both public and private. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2012 to 2015. The list is a veritable Who’s Who of technology that has included tech companies like Google, VMware and Facebook.

Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest growing technology, life sciences, and energy the companies – both public and private – in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth during the period from 2012 – 2016.

Red Herring

Red Herring has named Evolve IP as one of the Top 100 Companies in North America. Red Herring’s Top 100 recognizes the leading and most promising private companies from around the world. Among the over 20 criteria used to analyze companies for the award, Evolve IP was noted for its financial performance, technological innovation, customer footprint, the DNA of its founders and addressable market.

Red Herring selects the award winners for North America from approximately 1,200 privately financed companies each year in the US and Canada. Since 1996, Red Herring has kept tabs on these organizations and its editors were among the first to recognize that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Salesforce.com, YouTube, Palo Alto Networks and eBay would change the way we live and work.

Entrepreneur

Evolve IP has been recognized as one of the “Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America” in Entrepreneur magazine’s Entrepreneur360™ Performance Index, a study involving a comprehensive analysis of private companies in America. Based on this study forged by Entrepreneur, Evolve IP is recognized as a company that exemplifies growth, not just in top and bottom line, but in sustainability and the ability to achieve lasting success.

According to Entrepreneur, after evaluating approximately 10,000 U.S. based firms, the team of editors and researchers behind the E360 Performance Index collected more than 250 pieces of data from the finalists, focusing on growth drivers and challenges, goal setting, resource allocations, and reward systems. The analysis uncovered a class of leading companies, including Evolve IP, whose continued success is largely based on superior value creation for their customers, building an adaptive learning culture, and aggressive geographic expansion—placing them amongst the most dynamic firms in America today.